I do not own D. Gray- Man!

Chapter 22:

I still don't know what had gone on. We had given the guys their new uniforms. Oh, yeah, the new exorcist was named Arystar. Didn't really know what to think of him. Apparently he was rich. He was also eccentric. Just these small things that were different.

The guys liked the new uniforms. Lavi was back to his bouncy self, which relieved me. But Lenalee just sat on the bottom of the stairs staring into space.

"Lenalee?" Miranda asked holding the package of her new uniform.

"Lenalee is having a hard time." Bookman told her, or me, I don't know. "She regrets having left Allen last night. She blamed herself for what happened."

There was the sound of breaking glass. I turned to see Lavi's fist in the hole where the glass had broken. He was mad.

"Enough already." Lenalee wasn't paying attention to him. Which made him even more mad. "It couldn't be helped. We all did the best we could do last night! Unfortunately, we couldn't save him! These things happen in war! Accept it!" He was yelling by now. Lenalee was still staring but she started crying, which shocked Lavi. I noticed that he had tears in his eyes too. The other three looked at him as well, glaring. Bookman got Lavi in a strangle hold and sat on top of him.

"Sorry Lenalee, look I'll make him pay for that." He told Lenalee. Then he lowered his voice so that no one but Lavi would hear. But: A- I had excellent hearing, B- I could read lips. "Calm yourself you idiot!" Lavi stopped struggling.

"Why should I you old panda?" Came his reply. "What I said was true!" Bookman smacked him over the head, releasing him from the strangle hold, pulling Lavi around to face him. The others had gone to Lenalee's side.

"Do you think you're an apostle of God?!" Bookman continued to whisper. "You're destined to be the next bookman, nothing else. I told you, always observe from the outside. There are wars that do not appear in the pages of history. They are the forces that create history. A bookman watches everything without taking sides. He witnesses it without forming an opinion so that his account can be free of bias." Here he lowered his voice even more and I had to strain to hear him. "Do not be drawn into any war. Remember that we cooperate with the Black Order only for the purpose of keeping records." Here he looked at Lavi with the hardest eyes I've ever seen. "Don't forget your duty, Lavi."

"Yeah, sure. Sorry, old panda." Lavi said quietly lowering his head, it was hard to watch this. In one corner was Lavi, and as annoying as he was, he was still one of my friends. One of the few I had, having to keep his emotions out of everything, having to detach himself from everyone was obviously painful and difficult. The look on his face made it clear. It made me feel bad to be watching these obviously intimate feelings, the stuff that he obviously didn't want others to see and the stuff he wasn't even supposed to feel. It was just painful. And across from him was another friend, crying her eyes out, blaming herself for something she had no control over.

"Anyway," Bookman's voice was loud again so that everyone could hear him. Lavi seemed to be nursing a bruise he probably received for calling Bookman an old panda. "It was foretold that Allen would be the 'Destroyer of time'. I don't believe he's really dead." Lenalee looked up at Bookman with hope. "I asked Chief Komui to put us on a mission with Allen because I was interested in that young man. In this case 'time', could be a person." He paused for dramatic effect. "'time', 'Millennium', It's possible that Allen Walker is destined to destroy the Millennium Earl. If so," he looked at Lenalee, "then he's still very much alive."

Just then the huge woman who looked like a man entered the cabin. She saw the broken glass.

"It was him." Bookman pointed at Lavi. She cracked her knuckles and advanced on him.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Lavi cried running to Miranda.

"It's all right," She smiled, "look."

We looked as the glass repaired itself. Too bad her innocence didn't work on emotion. That way she could repair Lenalee and Lavi.